To Athenas And Back
by Cionie9
Summary: The Cult of the Impending Storm are obsessive and won't let Maya walk away from them so easily. How will the team get her back? A May0 fic.
1. Chapter 1

**Summary:** The Cult of the Impending Storm are obsessive, and won't let Maya walk away from them so easily. How will the team get her back? A May0 fic.  
This takes place after Borderlands 2 so… spoilers. 

**Chapter 1**

Salvador's dual shotguns rang out and filled the air with bullets, many of them finding a new home in some unfortunate bandit. A crazy smile was plastered to his face as he shouted and whooped, the excitement of battle coursing through him. Across the large courtyard, his mission partner Maya was feeling the same sensation. Adrenaline was a fantastic thing. Not only did it make gunfights like this one so much more fun, it also prevented Maya from having to think about that slice in her arm from a rogue psycho with a battle ax. She'd deal with that later. Right now there was a boss to kill and a bandit town to wipe clean.

Salvador's maniacal laughter boomed from the other side of the courtyard. " _BIENVENIDOS A LA FIESTA, AMIGOS_!" While Maya couldn't understand the weird language the native Pandoran spoke, she was pretty sure it meant that a lot of people were about to die.

Maya lobbed an elemental grenade behind the scrap metal the boss was using for cover. A few seconds later she heard the pleasing sound of screams as the large man was set on fire. He hadn't made any attempt to move when her grenade landed. Maybe he thought his shield could handle a normal explosion. Maya smirked at the idea; she was anything but normal.

Taking a deep breath, she came out from behind her own cover and walked confidently towards the still flailing bandit leader. His eyes looked crazy, angry, and now they were fully focused on her. He raised his gun just as she lifted her tattooed, and now glowing, left hand.

"Phaselock," she muttered, closing her glowing blue fist. The boss froze, his eyes now filled with confusion. He was suddenly suspended in a dark blue ball of energy a few feet above the ground. Static bounced over the edge of the ball. Try as he might, the guy couldn't move even a finger; his hand frozen on the trigger of his oversized gun. While he tried to figure out what was going on, Maya wasted no time in emptying her pistol clip into the man's face. When her phaselock power ran out, the ball of energy evaporated and only the man's deadweight was left.

Yelling from behind alerted her to an incoming psycho. She dropped her weight and elbowed the guy right in the gut, forcing him to drop the grenade he was holding. Catching it, Maya tossed it over and into the face of another bandit, blowing him to smithereens. The psycho below her was still conscious though, and he wasn't about to give up without a fight. He brought his fist up and clipped her chin, making her adjust her balance and clear her head. The psycho moved fast, grabbing for a gun tucked in his belt. Maya wiped blood from her lip and punched the psycho as hard as she could in the jaw, her strength amplified by her power. One punch, then two and the psycho was down.

Looking over, she checked on Salvador's progress and was glad to see he had just finished off a goliath sized man. Good, she hated dealing with those freakishly strong guys.

"All okay over there, Salvador?" she called. The short man was laughing his head off and still unloading into the dead man's body. She took that as a sign that they were done and could start "resupplying". She knelt down by the leader's body and began going through his pockets.

CRACK!

Maya's head shot up to see a bandit standing 2 feet from her, his gun raised, ready to shoot. Her eyes widened as he made a gurgling sound and fell forward, the back of his head blown out. Standing, she used the scope on one of her other guns to look in the direction the shot had come from. It was too late, though; there wasn't anyone around that she could see.

"Hey, _amiga_! You done over there or what?" Salvador yelled over his armful of guns and ammo.

"Uh… yeah. Sure," Maya answered. She shot another suspicious glance over yonder, a thought occurring. She turned on her ECHO and opened a private channel with her fellow Vault Hunter, Zer0. With a smirk, she sang "Thaaannnkks!" into the mic and waited a minute to see if he would reply. He didn't, and she figured she had guessed correctly. _Smart-ass._

Satisfied, Maya turned back to looting. This time she was more cautious about her surroundings.

* * *

"Hey Salvador, does it seem weird to you that Zer0 shadows other people's missions sometimes, even after he's said he's not going?" Maya asked loudly into her ECHO. Her voice would have never been heard otherwise, as the hot desert wind rushed by them at breakneck speed. Salvador liked to drive fast. Really fast. Normally Maya didn't mind as long as he didn't roll the vehicle with her still inside it, but it sure limited communication.

"No idea, _seniorita_. I didn't know he _was_ shadowing no missions! Never seen him show up on any of mine," Salvador yelled back.

"He was here today. At the bandit camp," Maya pressed.

"Then that would be first I heard of it. Sure it ain't just you?" He could have meant that Maya was imagining things, or he could have meant that Zer0 only showed up unexpectedly on her missions. Both of those ideas had implications Maya found herself uncomfortable with.

"If you're so curious, ask the demon yourself. That's what a real man would do!" Salvador said.

Maya let the conversation end there and choose not to inform her partner that she was not, in fact, a man. Settling back in her gunner's chair, she thought about Salvador's suggestion as they made their way to the closest Fast Travel location.

* * *

Ice clinked in Maya's drink and the glass left a wet ring on the bar when she finally brought it to her lips. Thinking better of it, she ended up putting the glass back down, still untouched, and sighed. Moxxi, the buxom barmaid and owner of Moxxi's Tavern, sauntered over to the siren from the other side of the bar.

"Something wrong, sugar? You don't look so hot," Moxxi said.

"No, nothing's wrong. I guess I'm just… thinking," Maya answered. Moxxi frowned at the noncommittal response.

"Hun I've run this bar since Sanctuary was still a baby, I know when someone is up, down or sideways. You ma'am," Moxxi took a moment to assess the siren, "are sideways."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Maya asked, suddenly aware of Moxxi's roaming eyes.

"Darling, you're thinking about a _man_. I can tell."

Moxxi smiled devilishly as Maya tried to mask a blush with haughty indifference. "Wha- I am not!"

"Well you ought to be!" the older woman pushed a colorful piece of paper and a pen toward Maya. "I'm taking a little survey, ya see."

Taking up the paper, Maya's eyes widened when she read the title:

PANDORA'S SEXIEST VAULT HUNTER

"Wait, seriously?"

"Serious as the sun, gorgeous," Moxxie said with a wink. "Don't look so surprised, there's one for the girls too! You came in second place, right behind Lilith actually. Don't be too down about it though. She's already got an established fan club. I'm sure you'll catch up to her in time!"

Maya gave the woman an incredulous look before continuing to read the card. As Moxxi said, the list was made up mostly of her male companions:

AXTON  
MORDECAI  
BRICK  
SALVADOR  
KRIEG  
ZERO  
SIR HAMMERLOCK

"Why is Sir Hammerlock on here?"

"Don't judge! Some women like older men. Now go ahead and vote – it's anonymous," she winked again and looked down the bar, giving Maya the guise of privacy.

The siren glared at Moxxi suspiciously for a moment before grabbing the offered pen. Looking down the list again, she couldn't help but blush thinking about any of these men as "sexy". She'd fought alongside them for almost a year now, through the best of times and the worst of times. They had partied together and lost friends together. She respected her teammates, but found it hard to think of them as "sexy".

 _Well, I guess Axton counts as sexy. He's got the mix of blond-haired-blue-eyed soldier thing going on. I guess that works for lots of women, he_ _'s got a big enough fan club anyway. All those dashing tales of blood and glory told in crowded bars helps a lot, I'm sure._ _And Mordecai has that sort of Rasta-sniper look. Not really my thing though… I wonder if he has a fan club like Axton does._

She immediately crossed Sir Hammerlock off her mental list with a side look at Moxxi, who was pretending not to notice her.

 _Krieg can be adorable, until he opens his mouth anyway. Salvador, nope. Brick, nope. Zer0…_

Zer0 was one of the first people Maya had met on Pandora, on that fateful, hellish train ride. Since that event he had operated with the team towards their goals, although somewhat detached from the group. He started off as a very distant, enigmatic character. None of them had ever seen what he looked like under his body suit and helmet, and no one knew what his voice sounded like other than the clearly mechanized voice he used on the few occasions that he did speak. Each of them had things about their past they didn't want others to know, sure, but Zer0's was particularly mysterious. She knew he was an assassin for hire. She knew that he, for whatever reason, primarily spoke in haiku. He preferred to take his kills either by sniping, or with his digistruct sword, and he had an odd, morbid sense of humor. Not like the more violent members of their group did... no one really got Zer0's sense of humor.

Despite his shady past, he had never given any of them a reason to mistrust him. He was strong, efficient, graceful, and he never appeared to leave anything unfinished. He might keep his secrets to himself, and he rarely spoke, but he was sincere.

Hastily, Maya scratched an X down on the sheet, folded it up and threw it into the bowl Moxxi was suddenly offering. Had the woman been watching her vote? She hoped not. If anyone found out which name her X was next to, she might just die.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

There was a time when Zer0 didn't bother reading all the personal bullshit that prospective clients would add into their assassination requests to him. Like he needed to know why their request was justified, somehow making them better people than they were for requesting an assassination. Someone's brother was killed and they want revenge, someone feels they deserve an inheritance sooner than later, someone is just being a dick. It all ended the same, which was why he didn't bother reading them in the first place.

He wasn't certain when he started paying attention to the stories, or when they started to aid in determining if he would take the contract or not. Thinking back on it, maybe it was when he decided to stay on Pandora, complete the goal of finding the Vault, and defeat the megalomaniac Handsome Jack. Skimming the requests then was important to know if the job would take him off planet or not. It still wasn't necessary for him to read all the personal details though. So why bother reading them now?

The answer, Zer0 mused, was because at some point over the last few months, the stories became interesting. The logic behind someone's desire for the death of another became intriguing. Zer0 had never cared much for _why_ someone had to die, unless they posed a significant challenge to him, but even then the reasoning was simple. They had to die for him to test the extent of his abilities.

But the rationale around these requests rarely stemmed from taking advantage of a challenge. All the stories were motivated by emotion, greed, vengeance or, sometimes, apathy. The management man who was afraid a whistleblower would ruin the corporation he spent his life building. The sister who mourned the loss of her sibling, and was determined to make sure no one else was taken by an ambitious murderer. The spoiled brat who wanted others to do as he said, or die. At some point, Zer0 started turning down jobs he felt did not have a strong enough reason behind them.

The spoiled brat would have to learn that not everyone revolved around him. It wasn't Zer0's job to make the universe in that idiot's image, and he didn't care to waste his time on it. The management man was feeling the consequences of his sloppy actions, let someone else clean up after him. The sister, her request might actually prove to be some sort of challenge but she wasn't offering enough money. Her request was a plea for charity, and Zer0 didn't do charity.

On his left, two members of his team, the soldier and Pandoran berzerker, walked past his hidden location. their boisterous voices loud with merriment and too much rakk-ale. Zer0 overheard the Pandoran say something about a team-wide drinking contest, his inebriation making his words slur together.

A frowning emoticon flashed red in front of Zer0's helmet, mimicking his facial expression behind the opaque visor. Zer0 had lost something important to being an efficient and effective assassin. Detachment. He was no longer comfortably removed from everyone and everything around him. He had been a member of this team of Vault Hunters, and a somewhat official citizen of this town called Sanctuary, for nearly a year. He knew things about people's characters now, and took that information into consideration when interacting with those people. If an attack came, he knew he wouldn't hesitate to join his team in protecting Sanctuary. Zer0 was... attached.

Another red hologram flashed in front of his mask: WTF.

"A skill has been lost. / I need distance from this place / to be strong again," Zer0 thought aloud, the poetic cadence he favored punctuating his words.

Rising from his spot against a back alley wall, he slipped unseen onto the streets of Sanctuary. Light faded all around the town, except for Moxxi's Tavern, which was already bright and full of noisy patrons. Like a shadow Zer0 blended with the falling darkness of night time on Pandora. It would not due to have someone discover his intentions of disappearing. His teammates all seemed to have an inconvenient habit of making leaving a sentimental affair, something he never fully understood. Still, as he arrived at the shared locker space where they all kept the few belongings they owned, he felt an odd tightness in his chest. A curious apprehension. Was he concerned about being caught? Or was it something else? Something he couldn't yet name.

He made a quick decision to leave something behind for the team to find. Although he was not comfortable with the attachment he had developed for the group of oddball warriors, he was not yet able to cut his ties to them so cleanly. Satisfied with his action, he resumed packing the few things he had in the locker: an exceptional sniper rifle, a couple of reliable pistols, ammo, his favored digistruct sword, some rations, cash, and that was it. He wouldn't need anything else.

"Oh, Zer0! Mordecai's looking for you, he wants to challenge you to a sniper- Where are you going?" Maya entered the room suddenly, making Zer0 realize he had been so distracted by his thoughts that he hadn't heard her coming. That, coupled with the concerned look she was now giving him, was unnerving.

"An offer to spar? / Mordecai wants to show off. / I think I will pass."

Zer0's mechanized voice was nearly monotone. His teammates had worked with him long enough that, sometimes, they were able to pick up subtle inflections of tone signifying sarcasm, or in rare instances, excitement. Although this time, all Maya heard was a sterile indifference. Her eyes skimmed the scene before here, looking for clues about where Zer0's head was at. She noted the guns he now had strapped to his back, his bag and empty locker.

"You're leaving," she accused, her voice soft.

After a moment of contemplation, Zer0 responded, "Yes."

"Are you leaving Pandora?" Maya pressed, her voice was even but her heart rate quickened.

"Yes," came the mechanic response. His mask was not facing her directly, which she could only assume meant he was not looking at her. For another long moment, there was silence between them.

"You fucking bastard," Maya finally spat, anger welling inside her. Zer0 looked up, a red question mark hanging in front of his helmet.

"Don't you use that stupid hologram on me," Maya continued, her hands balled into fists and her voice rose with frustration. "What, you thought you'd just slink off into the night without even saying goodbye? Did you think we wouldn't care if you disappeared? Like the past year of us all practically living together meant nothing, and it wouldn't _matter_ if you just up and _left_? Geeze, how selfish _are you_?" If she had been near a table, she probably would have thrown something.

Zer0 continued to say nothing, though this time there were no holograms accompanying his silence. Under his suit, his body was tight, like he was waiting for an attack. He watched the siren closely, waiting for... something. Her words were not accurate, but that was exactly why he had decided to leave. Was it selfish? Probably, but that was the point.

"Where will you go?" Maya finally asked, her voice quieter, resigned. Zer0 decided her current tone did not suit the determined, headstrong woman he had come to recognize her as.

"Eden 5, I have / accepted a contract there. / After? I don't know," he answered honestly.

"How long will you be gone?"

"I don't know."

Maya sighed dejectedly. "Fine. It's just that," she paused, rethinking her words, "You're a good man, Zer0. I'll- we'll miss you."

"Good? I am not good. / A good man cannot shoot true. / I am fine with this." Maya expected his response. She had gathered early on that Zer0 had a very black and white way of looking at the world around him.

"None of us are saints; every one of us has blood on our hands," she said, a relaxed smile softened her features. "You've helped save a lot of people here, and our team would not have succeeded if we didn't have you at our backs. You've done good things, you should own it."

Zer0 turned his head away from her, increasingly uncomfortable with the situation. He slung his bag over his shoulder and made his way up to Maya, his destination the exit beyond her. Stopping just at her side, he turned his head towards her ear.

"Do not get yourself killed."

"God, you're such an asshole," Maya countered and before Zer0 could process her intentions she embraced him in a hug. She took advantage of his shock and held him tightly, her face buried in the crook of his neck for as long as she thought she could get away with. He didn't hug her back, but she didn't care. When she let him go, neither of them attempted eye contact.

Zer0 left. Maya stayed in the locker room for a while afterwards and struggled with whether or not she should go after him, convince him not to leave, tell him that they needed him here, on Pandora, in Sanctuary. Underneath it all, she knew she couldn't stop him. Nothing she could have said would have changed anything.

When she got herself under control, Maya returned to the tavern where the rest of her team were waiting. She headed straight to the bar and ordered a stiff drink. Taking a generous gulp, she flinched as the burning liquid went down. Moxxi gave her an odd look.

"Oi, anybody seen Zer0? That sonofabitch is going down!" Mordecai hollered drunkenly from down the bar.

"Zer0 isn't coming," Maya said calmly but loud enough for everyone to hear. Something was wrong and anyone not knockout drunk could sense it. The bar became abnormally quiet, with the exception of Mordecai and a few others, the aforementioned knockout drunks.

"Then where the hell is he? I'll get 'im!" Mordecai said, swinging drunkenly from his stool.

"He's probably off planet by now," she responded, taking another gulp from her drink and placing the empty glass back on the bar. She could feel the others staring at her, trying to comprehend the news. Fresh anger welled up in her and she stood up from her stool with more force than intended. She muttered something about their missing companion being a "stupid jerk" and stalked out of the now silent tavern.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Updates might start slowing down from here on out. I have written up to Chapter 5 so far, and am still plugging away. Don't get down-hearted! Zer0 is here to awkwardly perk you up :3**

 **Finally, a quick thank you to those of you who have commented so far! It's good motivation for me to keep going!**

* * *

 **Chapter 3**

Zer0 spent the next few days in solitude within the storage section of an interstellar frigate headed for the metropolitan planet of Eden 5. Travelling as a stowaway had been the norm for him when he used to take off-world assassination contracts. It was, failing all else, the easiest way to travel while avoiding detection from anyone, especially if he was on an active job.

Usually he used this time to fix anything on his armor or gear that needed it, or plan out his next few contracts. This time, he was finding it difficult to focus on anything, his mind negging him into contemplating the situation that had occurred prior to leaving Pandora. Specifically, the last interaction with his former teammate Maya. The siren had managed to occupy his thoughts before, though never quite as thoroughly as she did right now. Her physical exchange with him, humans called it a "hug" if he remembered correctly, had taken him completely off guard.

What bothered him the most about it? She had been able to get so close as to make contact with him for an extended period of time without him being able to get his body to react? Or that he had dropped his guard in the first place and allowed the breach of space to be made? Or, he hesitantly pondered, was he unsettled by the positive feeling the connection had evoked in him? It was, of course, possible that he had not been touched intimately in so long a time that his body was responding naturally, and his reaction was merely biological. Some primitive need that his body recognized, briefly, and would soon fade.

These questions disturbed him. They wreaked havoc on his long held believe that he was not human enough to succumb to such base urges. Yet, here he was. Unable to focus completely on the task in front of him without being interrupted repeatedly by memories of the siren's unexpected embrace, and the curious heat that spread through his body like a shudder when he thought about it.

Frustrated, he switched tactics and decided to check for incoming bulletins. Perhaps he would secure a second contract now, and not have to bother finding one after his current job was complete.

Zer0 used the heads up display in his helmet to flip through messages and a few public bounties. He didn't usually care for the public jobs, but occasionally there was one that seemed like it would pose a decent challenge for him; always a plus. He stopped on a wanted notice offering significantly more money than the others. Although the money wasn't why he lingered. The photo caught his eye first. Long blue hair that fell into familiar crystal-colored eyes.

It must be an old picture. The siren sported a much shorter hairstyle nowadays.

 **WANTED - ALIVE**

 **NAME:** MAYA

 **DESCRIPTION:** BLUE HAIR with BLUE TATTOOS on LEFT SIDE of BODY

 **NOTES:** SIREN. VERY DANGEROUS. APPROACH with CAUTION.

CONTACT BROTHER ALGER of the CULT of the IMPENDING STORM for DROP OFF and REWARD COLLECTION.

After a minute of deliberation, Zer0 closed the public bounty screen and switched back to sifting through only the requests directed at him. This was not the first time Maya had a bounty on her head. She was capable, and surrounded by capable people. She'd be fine on her own, there was no need for Zer0 to take any course of action.

Besides, the whole point of him leaving was to reestablish his detachment from the people of Pandora. Contacting any of them now would defeat the whole purpose.

There was nothing interesting in the private requests. With a frustrated sigh he closed the screen and readjusted how he was sitting against the boxes around him.

"The peaceful silence / Penetrates my whole being / It's so very dull," he recited into the darkness of the large room.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Hopefully this chapter makes up for the super short one last time :)**

* * *

 **Chapter 4**

Two week had passed since Zer0 left, and there was a noticeable difference in the group of Vault Hunters. It wasn't quite as melancholy as when their friend Roland was killed, but there was that same tenseness in the air. They had lost one of their own. He was alive at least, but it was pretty clear by now, after not receiving any transmitted communication since he left, that the ties were cut.

Changes were slight, but noticeable within the group. Lilith, as the team's acting leader since Roland's death, assigned Mordecai to more missions now that they were down a sniper. Mordecai threatened incessantly that he would retire from sniping, and he was "getting too old for this shit." Although he never made any move to follow through on the threat. Gaige, in true teenager fashion, teased Mordecai mercilessly. If he was too old to be their sniper anymore, then the team would just have to take away his booze and put him in an old folks home. These taunts kicked the older man off on another rant every time.

Axton acted like he didn't care that Zer0 was gone at all, but talked about it too much to be sincere. "Who needs him anyhow!" could be heard shouted from the bar sometimes. It was no secret that the soldier and assassin hadn't always seen eye to eye on strategy. Perhaps Axton missed the conflict.

Salvador and Brick didn't seem to care either way. They were as they always were: loud, hard-headed and offensive. Few noticed any change in the most mentally unstable member of the party, Krieg. He still shouted disturbingly violent, yet random phrases at anyone he thought looked in his direction. A couple people might have commented that the mostly friendly psycho did seem to hang closer to Maya now. Since the assassin had left, Krieg was sometimes spotted outside of Maya's small studio apartment in Sanctuary. Sometimes he was banging his head against walls, other times he was throwing flowers at her door and then hurriedly ducking, like they were about to explode or something. Maybe he was being affectionate. That might have been imagined though, no one really knew what went on in that strange man's scrambled skull.

Maya had the most noticeable change, next to Mordecai. She had been in a bad enough mood that some people were actively avoid her. She started taking more solo missions, which both impressed and worried her teammates. She came back from each mission successfully though, so no one felt it was their place to criticize her choices.

The siren wiped sweat from her forehead as she hiked through rough terrain in the searing heat of the long, 90 hour Pandorian day. She was supposed to be collecting fecal samples of the skags that lived in the rocky area for a study Sir Hammerlock was doing. Not the most desirable of missions but the older gentleman had insisted it was crucial to his research, so she agreed to help.

"I swear, this is the last time I agree to help that guy with one of his studies," she muttered, peering through her scope and setting her sights on a group of skags pacing in front of their dug hole-homes. The beasts might be some of the most hideous things Maya had ever seen. Their discolored, thick skin moved over the hard muscles that made up most of a skag's body. The trick to killing these was to shoot them in the mouth when they opened up their large, disjointed jaws to spit acidic saliva. It paid to avoid the claws, teeth and spikes along their spines as well.

Maya discharged her weapon and controlled the kick-back to line up her next shot. She felled one of the larger skags when it was yawning with her first shot, and her second injured another as the small pack dropped into attack mode. Emptying her clip in the side of another, she dropped into a sprint to avoid the assault of the pack while she reloaded.

One of the smaller beasts rammed into her, making her stumble and roll to avoid its claws. The digital shield she wore on her hip flashed and saved her from taking any real damage, allowing her to get a few smart shots into the thing's mouth before it was able to cover her in acid. Maya stayed in motion and used her phaselock ability to trap one of the larger skags from jumping on her. Reloading another clip, she killed that creature and shifted her aim to take on the one or two that were left. A few tumbles and bullets later, the pack was dead, their bodies sprawled around the small clearing of rocks and dirt.

"Yup. Definitely the last time," she said to herself, getting some baggies out and kneeling next to one of the foul smelling piles near a skag-sized hole.

A sudden stinging feeling on her back and a flash from her shield alerted Maya to the fact that she wasn't alone. Whirling around with her gun up, Maya's eye widened to find a group of bandits coming over the rocks and into her skag clearing. She let off a few shots and heard the satisfying yell from someone she hit.

"Sorry boys, I'm too busy to play today," Maya taunted the men. She still had some power left over from her recent battle, but not much. She'd have to make it count. Raising her tattooed right arm, she called forth her power and focused it on a man in the middle of the small group that had appeared. "Converge," she called out and forced the man upward in her phaselock, this time take a few of the other bandits with him. She couldn't hold this stronger version of her basic power long, so now would be a good time to run.

Maya flew to her feet, intending to make it to open ground so her back wasn't to a bunch of rocks. She heard one of them call out about a live grenade and made her run for the flat ground that made up a sort of entrance between the skag clearing and the open ground beyond the ring of rocks. If she could make it that far without getting caught in the grenade's radius, she'd have a solid chance at taking on these guys.

Behind her the grenade went off, but there wasn't the heat at her back that she was expecting. Instead there was a blinding flash accompanied by a thundering boom. Her head swam with the ringing in her ears and her eyes had spots in them, disorienting her. At some point, she had fallen onto the ground and she couldn't figure out which way was up. Large shadows loomed over her. The men might have been talking but she couldn't hear them. Maya tried to use her siren powers but the feeling only turned her stomach and brought bile into her mouth. Somewhere on her arm she felt a prickling sensation and it wasn't long after that she lost all consciousness.

* * *

Maya awoke with her cheek resting on a cold metal surface. Groggily, she opened her eyes and let her vision come into focus before even considering trying to sit up. There wasn't much to see, the room she was in was almost completely dark, except for some light that slipped between the door and the floor. The walls and ceiling appeared to be made of the same metal as the floor, and there was no furniture in the small room. With a calming breath, she tried to sit up and immediately regretted it as her head started to spin. She numbly felt that her arms were bound behind her and there was something tight around her throat. She was still fully clothed, which was a good sign, though as far as she could tell she had nothing else on her. No weapons, no ECHO, no gear. Not such a great sign.

Muffled voices came from behind the door and Maya stopped trying to sit up in an effort to make out words.

"It should work perfectly."

"Should? We didn't pay you for 'should'."

"It _does_ work perfectly. Don't worry. The siren poses no danger to us now."

Maya narrowed her eyes and strained to better hear the second voice. Something about that one's tone struck her as familiar.

"Good. Then _you_ will go in to check on her."

"Wit- without a guard with me?"

"What's the problem, doctor? The siren no longer poses a danger, remember?"

The second voice was mocking, and the first one nervous, that's about all she could tell. Then, the handle on the door clicked and she ignored her throbbing head so that she'd be in a better position than sprawled on the floor. Just in case an opportunity opened.

The light from the doorway was almost blinding to her still sensitive eyes. "Ah, so you're awake! Good!" the first voice came from the silhouette of what looked like a small man. His voice was nasally and jumpy, like he was talking to a caged beast.

"Who are you? I'll need to know for when I disembowel you later," Maya said through gritted teeth. She heard the man huff in disgust.

"Seems the monks never taught their goddess to be much of a lady," the man muttered just loud enough for Maya to hear. She froze as his words sent a chill down her spine.

"Where the hell am I?" she demanded, focusing on her siren powers. If she could surprise this guy then maybe she could... There was nothing there. Her power felt like it had been locked away somewhere she couldn't reach and the more she tried for it, the sicker she began to feel. The collar around her neck felt unsettlingly warm.

"On a spaceship. Headed for home," the man said, his voice cold. He then left, shutting the door and locking her once again in darkness. On the cold metal floor, Maya hung her head. All the aches she had ignored before now racked her body as the heat from her collar faded.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary:** The Cult of the Impending Storm are obsessive, and won't let Maya walk away from them so easily. How will the team get her back? A May0 fic. This takes place after Borderlands 2 so… spoilers.

 **A/N: It's been a while! Here is Chapter 5: Aka: the chapter where we see just how messed up the rest of the party is.**

Salvador was supposed to be making his way towards skag country, but it was the middle of the day, it was hot, and he wanted a drink. So Salvador was in some dingy bar, in some dingy backwater town instead. The rakk-ale in his glass was currently too refreshing for him to care that he was _supposed_ to be out looking for his teammate. Wherever she was, he was vaguely certain she could wait a few more minutes for him to find her.

Maya had stopped answering ECHO communications a few days ago. She had been out in the middle of nowhere on a mission for Sir Hammerlock, so her teammates were a bit nervous that they hadn't heard from her. In all fairness, Salvador _had_ volunteered to go check on her, but he had an attention span about as short as his steroid-stunted height, and still hadn't reached the area Maya had been heard from last.

Some rough looking guys entered the room and sat down at a table near to where Salvador was perched at the bar. He had no reason to pay them any mind until he overheard one of them mention the exorbitant bounty he had just collected. That was information worth eavesdropping on.

The men at the table continued on about how impressed they were that their buddy took down a real-life siren for the money. It was an achievement worth boasting about on a place like Pandora. Which siren - Lilith? No, some chick with blue hair. Way easier than the Firehawk, one of them speculated. The Firehawk wouldn't have gone down so quickly.

Salvador had heard enough. Before the bandits knew what was happening, one of them had his head blown off by a shotgun and another was bleeding out on the table. The whole bar erupted into chaos as the short man roared, taking out another couple of guys with an SMG he pulled from a strap on his back. He then launched himself at the man who had been bragging about his latest payday and grabbed him around the neck. Anyone who was able exited the bar as fast as they could. Salvador let them go, focusing on the sweet crackling sound the man's arm made when he bent it the wrong way. The man howled in pain, sobbing for Salvador to let him go.

"Bragging about a job, _amigo_? That's not too smart to do in these parts," Salvador growled into the man's face with a crazed smile. The bandit's eyes almost went to the back of his head when he felt one of his fingers snapped off. "Bragging means you want to tell people about it. So tell me about it, _feo_."

"I- I don't know much! God please let me go- MY ARM! YOU BASTARD BROKE MY ARM!"

"There's more where that came from if you don't tell me where my friend is," Salvador said, using the man's now limp arm to pat the man on his own head. The smell of fresh piss rose up from somewhere.

"Th-there was a bounty out on her. Alive, they wanted her alive. I don't know where they took her, I just dropped her off to some guy in a dark robe and got my money. That's all I know, I swear!"

Satisfied, Salvador promptly shot the guy and left the bar. This was information everyone would want to hear. "Everyone to the HQ. We got a big _problema_ ," he growled into his ECHO as he headed to the nearest Fast Travel station. Seconds later he was travelling through Pandora's digistruct network back to the floating city of Sanctuary.

Krieg was extremely distraught over the information that the pretty lady had been kidnapped. The little voice inside his head was telling him to calm down and wait for the team to decide what to do. Krieg interpreted this as "it's time to look for clues" and barreled out of the meeting room to do just that. His teammates were left wide eyed and wondering what their psychotic partner was up to. They shouldn't have been confused though, Krieg specifically shouted "HELL'S PUPPIES WILL BURN IN ACID FROM THE SMELLS!" before leaving, clearly letting them know that he was going to look for clues.

"We- we should go check on him," Axton said after Krieg departed and a loud bang was heard from downstairs. Everyone in the room exchanged worried glances.

"Uh, guys. That's where I keep DT's explosive modules," Gaige said nervously. Another bang and some screeching metal spurred everyone into action. With that kind of motivation, it wasn't long before everyone was gathered in the team locker room to witness Krieg tearing Maya's locker apart with his bare hands.

"DEPARTED STRINGS OF THE MOST GLORIOUS BLOOD!" Krieg yelled, happily holding his found clue in the air for everyone to see. The little voice told him those were actually the pretty lady's panties, and probably not a clue at all. Krieg ignored the voice and placed the undergarment on his head like a hat. If his instincts were correct, the smell would lead them to the pretty lady!

Lilith's patience for Krieg was not long on a normal day, and this was drawing a line. "Brick, restrain him, please," she said, rubbing her temples in a vain effort to stave off a headache. "This isn't getting us anywhere."

"RELEASE THE FLESHY POWERSPOUT!"

"Doesn't Maya have her own apartment? Why would she even have those in her locker?" Gaige asked with a grimace. She poked at the small bag of clothes Krieg had upset in his rampage. This whole thing brought back unpleasant memories of changing for gym in the shared locker room at her old school.

"ALL THE FLESH WILL DROWN BEFORE THE NIPPLE TOWER OF BLOOD!"

"Sometimes you need these things on hand- look, that's not the point. Can we please get a plan working here?" Lilith looked around to Axton, Mordecai and Salvador for help controlling the situation. Axton gave her a hopeless look, none of them were offering any.

"THE FLESH WILL PARK HIS MEAT BICYCLE IN YOUR SKULL POCKET!"

"BRICK! Shut that guy up before I teleport him outside of Sanctuary's walls and let him fall to his rightfully earned death!" Lilith lashed out, her own siren's tattoos, much like Maya's, began glowing an ominous orange color. Brick, knowing what the woman was capable of when she was angry, rammed Krieg's head against the wall, leaving a dent. It knocked the guy out though.

"Thank you, now everyone be _quiet_ for a moment and let me think," Lilith said, running her hands down her face.

"Whoa."

"Gaige, I just asked for- "

"Get a load of this!" Gaige whooped in glee and scrambled over Maya's tossed belongings to get back to the group. She held up a small piece of paper for everyone to see, a big grin of accomplishment lighting up her teenaged face.

"It's... a bunch of numbers. And letters. In no particular order. Good job squirt," Axton sighed, making Gaige's smile fade into frustration.

"Maybe to a blockhead like you!" she retaliated. "This was in Zer0's locker. I found it when Krieg bent the walls of Maya's locker into Zer0's old one. You know what that means, right?"

"That Zer0 writes memos?" Mordecai said, clearly confused. None of the others had any better guesses.

"Geeze! You're all really lucky that I'm such a friggin genius, ya know? It's a _code_. Probably," Gaige's tone was more confident than her words.

"Probably?" Lilith asked, frustration seeping back into her voice.

"Yeah, well, I need to analyse it first. Anyway, it's more than any of you have found," Gaige said, pouting now. Why didn't they ever trust her on the first go? _It's not like I've blown everyone up yet, or anything. Except that one time. Still!_

"Alright, then here's the plan. Gaige, you find out what that code means. I don't know how helpful it will be if it came from Zer0's locker... but it's all we've got right now. Salvador, I want you, Axton and Mordecai to see if you can find out where Maya might have been taken. She was wanted alive, right? That means we've still got a chance," Lilith was finally taking control of things. It wasn't much, but they had rescued friends from sticker situations than this before. She hoped.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Another update! That's cool! Thanks for sticking with me guys. I really appreciate your lovely comments about the story, and getting notifications warms my heart during the day :)**

 **Anywho, this is the chapter where nothing can be nice. Why can't things just be nice?**

* * *

 **Chapter 6**

Gaige was a friggin genius. Of course. There was no question that her intelligence and aptitude far exceeded that of her peers. Most of them anyway. Zer0 was one of those people who was able to occasionally stump her. _Occasionally._ Not, like, often, or anything. But it's fine. It's cool. She's totally got this. A little bit of unrecognizable code never stopped her. It'll just take some elbow grease in the form of copious amounts of caffeine. Sleep was for the weak anyhow.

Zer0 and his bit of code could go f*** himself.

It'd been 3 days and she still hadn't figured out what the string of characters on the bit of paper he'd left behind meant. She'd tried almost anything she could think of so far. Anagrams, different types of puzzles, various languages of code both human and alien, even coordinates on and off planet. Two short lines of numbers and characters. That's all it was. No larger than a friggin post-it note and she could not figure it out. Was he trying to tell them something? Or was this just nothing at all, garbage left over from a memo he'd scratched down long ago, now completely irrelevant?

Gaige rubbed her eyes and finished an energy drink, adding the can to a growing pile in the corner. "I need a break," she thought aloud, closing her current project and opening a fresh window. "Let's see... what's interesting and definitely not this?"

After a moment of thought she opened Hyperion's access screen. They always had something sketchy happening within their own section of cyberspace, maybe they could entertain her long enough for her brain to reboot on the Zer0 dilemma.

Since Handsome Jack died Hyperion had been in a violent state of transition. A fish stinks from the head down, and Jack's personal flavor of leadership had apparently seeped into every aspect of management, making deciding his succession a rather bloody affair. Gaige wasn't too concerned about who was killing who up on the moon base, that was Lilith's headache to track. Gaige was more interested in the relaxed security Hyperion had adopted in the meantime. She'd managed to get a few choice pieces of equipment moonshot to Pandora by hacking into their system before; it was pretty safe to assume she could do it again. Casually, she hacked into their distribution software and idly scrolled through their recent history and upcoming scheduled shipments.

A line-item marked "miscellaneous" caught her eye. The date of shipping was fairly recent, but it wasn't one of Gaige's packages. Did someone else have the same idea she did?

"Schminteresting..." she thought.

"Gaige, team meeting in 5," Lilith's voice sounded from Gaige's ECHO. The teenage genius grumbled a reply and shot the Hyperion screen another thoughtful look before leaving.

* * *

The team of vault hunters gathered on the top floor of the Crimson Raider's building. Roland might be gone but his legacy was kept alive by the Lilith and the other Crimson Raider members. They crowded around the map table, the room barely large enough to hold them.

Gaige slumped into one of the few roller chairs, her caffeine-tired ears barely registering what her teammates were talking about. Axton, Mordecai and Salvador had been scouring the planet for people who knew where Maya might have been taken. They had a little luck, but not much. To Gaige it sounded like they didn't have anything important to report. A new bounty on Maya had been circulating, but they didn't know who it was from, or if it was based off planet or not. No big commotions had happened when Maya was taken, and that was weird. She would have certainly put up a struggle if she were alive... what would have prevented anyone from noticing a siren being exchanged for a bounty?

Suddenly, a thought occurred to Gaige.

"How does someone off planet fulfill a bounty?" she asked the room. The adults either hadn't heard or where ignoring her, neither options Gaige found unacceptable.

"HEY!" she barked, making everyone stop their chatter and acknowledge the half-starved, caffeine-crazy looking teen rolling on a chair in the corner. "How does someone off planet turn in a bounty?" she asked again, demanding this time.

"Depends. Public bounties like this one can be viewed through a network. They don't last long though. Once the bounty is fulfilled the person who put it up has the option to erase the history of the account. Makes erasing tracks a little easier," Mordecai answered.

It was like a spark went off behind her eyes. "That's it!" Gaige jumped up and shoved people out of the way so she could access the nearest computer.

"That's what?" Lilith asked with a disapproving glare as Gaige began furiously typing away. It was always like pulling teeth getting this kid to complete a thought.

"The code! Actually, it's not a code at all... of course! How could I not have thought about this before... it's a username and password," Gaige responded absently.

The team exchanged confused glances. "What code?" Axton followed up.

Gaige froze and swirled around to stare at her teammates, her tired, bloodshot eyes wide and judging. They had totally forgotten about the slip of paper found in Zer0's locker. Unbelievable. With an angry huff she swiveled back around and didn't respond at first, focusing on her task. A minute later she had an ECHO screen up. She typed the first line of code into the "contact user" box, and the second line into the password request screen that popped when she tried to contact the mysterious first line. Like magic, the ECHO line opened up and started ringing. Everyone in the room held their breath as they waited for who might pick up on the other end.

A click was heard and the video call opened to a familiar black helmet.

"What do you want," Zer0's mechanized voice broke the silence that had fallen on the team, and they erupted into chaos in response.

Everyone started talking, or yelling, at once. Gaige started yelling "I called it!" in a sing-song voice, most of the rest of the team began berating Zer0's image for not saying goodbye, not calling, not at least giving one of them the chance to kill him before he left like a scared little puss- and Kreig was just yelling. But that was normal. Zer0 remained silent and still on the other side of the screen.

Finally, Lilith's voice broke through the noise after silencing at least one of them with force.

"Zer0, Maya's been kidnapped," she said, her eyes serious. When Zer0 didn't respond she continued, "There was a bounty out on her. We think it might have come from someone off Pandora."

"I know," came his sterile response.

"What do you mean 'you know?'" she asked, her voice holding back anger. "You mean to tell me you were aware of this bounty, even knew it was fulfilled, and choose not to notify us about it?"

"Yes."

Mordecai put a hand on Lilith's shoulder to stop her from blasting the screen to bits. The siren didn't move a muscle, but her eyes and tattoos were glowing again. Not usually a good sign. Zer0's continued silenced didn't help to ease the situation either.

"You have any idea where they might have taken her?" Mordecai asked, trying to defuse the tension. Why did all his teammates have to have anger issues?

"Athenas," Zer0 answered, referring to the planet Maya was from. It made sense. The Cult of the Impending Storm had put out bounties for Maya before, it really wasn't anything that new. They'd never actually been successful though. That was the curious thing. What could have changed that allowed them to capture a fully-fledged siren?

"You asshole! Where do you get off?" Axton barked, his fists clenching. Salvador swore and Brick's stone-faced frown deepend. The tension in the room was growing as each of them started to better understand the situation at hand. The abduction of their teammate could have been prevented if Zer0 had chosen to act. But he didn't.

"Why didn't you contact us sooner?" Lilith asked, her voice smoldering.

"It was her own fault... / And you weren't enough / To save her? Weakness."

"You really don't care about any of this, do you, you little shit! Does the word 'team' mean anything to you? You don't care about us, or Maya, or anyone but yourself. You're nothing but a robotic freak in a suit, too cowardly to come and face us yourself!" Axton began yelling at the screen, Zer0's stoic form only making him angrier.

Lilith massaged her forehead, trying to think clearly. Zer0's words were painful, but expected. The assassin was not the sympathetic type, and typically judged others on their capabilities. Still, even she had thought he had more respect for them than this.

"Axton, calm down," Lilith commanded. "Here's the plan. You and Gaige are going to head to Athenas. I'm sure we can bribe someone with a freighter to take you."

"WHAT! Why do I have to go?" Gaige asked, turning suddenly towards the older woman. Why did she have to be the one stuck with lug headed soldier boy?

"Because I don't trust any of these other guys off planet, and I need to stay with Sanctuary." Lilith's response made Mordecai share Gaige's expression.

"What do you mean you don't trust me?" he asked, flabbergasted. Lilith rounded on him, her patience growing short.

"Because YOU have a bounty the size of Helios. We don't need more bounty hunters screwing this up. Gaige and Axton will get in, get out, and if we're lucky, no one needs to be the wiser. It helps that Athenas is disconnected from most other systems, but you stick out like a sore thumb," she said. That was that. No more arguments.

"Zer0," Lilith continued, turning back to the screen, "can we plan to for you to meet us there? It'd be nice to have you at their backs."

"No."

Lilith rubbed her temples again as Zer0 abruptly cut the connection and everyone started yelling again. Why couldn't anything be easy... just once! Why can't anything just be nice!


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary:** The Cult of the Impending Storm are obsessive, and won't let Maya walk away from them so easily. How will the team get her back? A May0 fic.

This takes place after Borderlands 2 so… spoilers.

 **A/N: What? 2 updates in the same day? I must be dreaming.**

* * *

 **Chapter 7**

The scope of Zer0's sniper rifle poked delicately through the fake foliage the people of Eden 5 used to remind them of nature. The planet was nearly a single sprawling city, taking up all of the planet's land and resources. The only green to be found was made of plastic or fabric. In many ways, this planet was more of a wasteland than Pandora.

He was in the middle of a contract. A politician had been especially crooked and finally pissed off someone with enough money to afford Zer0's services. Tonight held the last few hours the mark would spend on this planet. He'd either leave on the private jet waiting for him at the end of the tarmac, or he'd leave in a body bag, his brains splattered across the pavement. Zer0, and his contractor, preferred the latter.

His gun shook slightly and he shifted again, trying to find a spot that would steel his unusually unsteady grip.

Zer0 had cut short the call from his teammates for a few reasons. First, he wanted to believe, he was simply done with the call, had no more to add to the situation, and had a contract to get back to. The next reason he was less comfortable with: he was seething beneath his helmet. His teammates couldn't tell due to lack of visual cues, but Zer0 was closer to livid than he'd been in a long time. He was angry at Axton for spouting the inane notion that he was a coward, he was angry at Maya and team for even being in this situation in the first place, he was angry at himself for not doing something about it sooner, and he was angry that he was so bothered at all.

For once the normally cool and collected assassin was buzzing with nervous energy. The red hologram that normally mirrored his facial expressions to the outside world was a quiet blur of fractured pixels, unable to read the myriad of feelings coursing through him in that moment.

The whole point of leaving Pandora was to avoid nagging attachment issues like this one. Why couldn't they have been competent. How could Maya allow herself to have been captured? She had never been anywhere near this vulnerable before; had he missed, in all the missions they had partnered on, some crippling weakness of hers? Some crack in her capabilities that led to her abduction?

No, he hadn't missed anything. Over the long year they spent as a team, fighting viciously towards the same goal, Zer0 had developed a fondness for the siren that, since recognizing it, made him increasingly uncomfortable. He'd cultured a respect and dependence on most of his teammates in that time, but Maya was different. Originally he reasoned that he simply respected how well the two of them complimented each other in battle. As a sniper, having someone hold the target still was useful. The fact she was capable in battle on her own was a bonus. Eventually, they'd collaborated on enough missions that her stark sense of humor and level of poise and control became familiar and comfortable. Something he knew he could rely on both in the heat of battle and the moments of calm.

Before he realized it he'd started to think of Maya as a natural partner, someone he'd always want at his back. Someone he'd hate to do without.

That was a dangerous idea to spin. Too much dependence on another could ruin a person. He'd seen it happen to enough people. Still, when she'd go on missions without him, either alone or with others, he couldn't help but shadow, making sure he didn't lose something. A lot could happen in a place like Pandora. On those secret missions he'd started to mentally berate himself. It wasn't until recently that he'd gotten himself under enough control to actually act and leave.

It was the right choice, to leave. He had to get rid of this attachment. Feeding it only meant mental strain and/or death. He couldn't afford to get attached.

Zer0 decided. He wouldn't go after Maya.

The mark came into view and started speaking with his security detail. A group of burly thugs in suits. Typical.

Let the team handle the situation. They didn't need him and Zer0 didn't need them.

The mark and his cohorts started walking across the tarmac. The plane was revving, preparing to leave as soon as it's passengers were boarded.

Maya would be fine. Axton and Gaige would get there in about a week. She'd be fine for a week.

Zer0 trained his sights on the mark's head, his scope allowing him to see the oiled hairs on the back of his neck. A black tattoo peaking out from under his collar.

He didn't need her. His life would go on, even if she died.

His finger slipped and the crack of the gun came too soon. The shot whizzed so close to the man's ear that it surely left a burn mark. But it missed, and the man now knew he was being hunted. Zer0 cursed under his breath and tried to line up another shot. Too late though. The man's security swarmed him, ducked his head beneath their masses and herded him into the plane, mostly unharmed. The door closed, locked, and the plane began its trip down the runway. The mark was lost.

Not completely lost. Zer0 could track the man to another planet, scope him out again and complete his contract, but that would take time. A lot of time.

Looking down at the gun clenched in his still shaking hands, Zer0 cursed again. This contract would go unfulfilled. If he left now he could be in Athenas in only a few days.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: On a roll! Hoping to keep the creative momentum going - we're a little over halfway through the story already! Again, reviews help with motivation so keep them coming - thanks :)**

* * *

 **Chapter 8**

The planet of Athenas was a small, backwater planet. Most of it was swampland with the occasional pocket of rocky walls jutting up from the earth like natual towers. One of the lower towers was used as a landing pad for the occasional interstellar barge. Not much traffic came to this planet, but Zer0 was able to secure travel as a stowaway on a retired Hyperion freighter delivering arms and ammunition. Interesting that a culture so adverse to technological advancement would want guns. This knowledge made Zer0 even more cautious about being detected.

His first impression of the people was weary, with a guise of peacefulness. They dealt with the off-planet merchant with tight-lipped smiles. Only the men who were dressed in dark robes seemed at ease talking with the outsider.

If Zer0 wanted to move around this planet, he'd need to be extra careful with his presence. Quietly, he slipped into Decepti0n mode, letting the molecules around him make him seem invisible for a few moments as he quickly exited the ship, shot across the landing pad, and secured another hiding spot near where the shipments were being stacked for delivery. He ducked under on the canvas tarps and squeezed between boxes of firearms. Just as he suspected, the cart these boxes were on started moving not too long after. Wherever all these guns were headed might lead him to clues of Maya's whereabouts.

The ride was bumpy and loud. The streets were made of the same thing everything else here was, swamp wood and suspended on stilts above the swirling dark water below them. The whole city was actually an engineering marvel. Every time the water level rose, or a storm washed something away, they rebuilt higher and stronger. Without modern technology like robots or other heavy equipment this was an incredible feat. It was amazing these people were still living here at all.

Eventually the sounds surrounding Zer0's hiding place changed to indicate they were moving from a side street to a major thoroughfare. The noise from the crowds around them became more concentrated and, oddly, excited. His gut told Zer0 something interesting was happening just on the other side of the thick canvas. Loud, preaching voices and the heavy thumping of other carts sounded past his own cart. Feet began stomping all around him, hands clapped and a rough chanting of voices rose from the crowd. His curiosity couldn't be contained so he decided to, carefully, see what was going on.

With great care he lifted the canvas up just enough to see between people's forms. All the traffic on the street had been pushed to the sides and an odd sort of parade was happening down the middle. Monks in dark robes were marching past and the crowd of civilians were stomping their feet and chanting along with the prayers the monks were reciting. The sound of their voices was grating; a weird sort of two-tone gurgle instead of singing. The energy moving through the crowd was incredible, and it wasn't long before Zer0 found out what the reason behind the festivities were.

Riding by on a large, ornately decorate cart and accompanied by monk armed with spears, was Maya. She was dressed all in white robes, making her sky blue hair stand out from the grays, blacks and browns that surrounded her. Zer0 noted as many details as he could from this brief glimpse of his mark. Her wrists were bound in sturdy chains, her ankles most likely were too, restricting her movement. This was curious. Normally chains would not be nearly enough to subdue someone with her powers. The robes she wore covered most of her body, including a thick cowl around her neck making it seem like she wore a large, white scarf. Perhaps there were some details Zer0 couldn't detect from his current position. Something more the monks were using to restrict her.

Other than the chains, Maya appeared to be in decent health. This was a good sign and Zer0 released a breath he hadn't realized he was holding. She was alive, and she was safe, for now. Her eyes were forward and her face was tight. It was obvious she was a prisoner, even if everyone around were acting like she was a goddess on earth.

Zer0 lowered the canvas again, blocking out the world around him and returning to his hiding spot. The parade was headed to one of the other, larger, rock towers. That was where he would begin his search for her, after nightfall.

* * *

Dr. Zachara Miglia was a small, nervous man. His form was not build for physical stress, but rather better for the strain that comes with dedicating one's life to science. His eyes were beady and always moving, always looking for another detail. Currently his eyes were locked onto an old, out-of-date monitor. The picture quality wasn't great, but it was enough for him to notice something that didn't belong in the crowd surrounding the parade happening in town. Just for a moment, no more, the canvas on a cart lifted slightly and the sun bounced off of what was surely a dark visor. Someone was on Athenas who didn't belong.

Dr. Miglia began pacing the room, running his hands together like a hungry rat, his mind turning with this new information. "This is exactly the reason I tell Brother Marter why we need more surveillance. But no, the old Hyperion spy system is enough technology for them. Too much and it won't fit with their small-minded cult rules. IDIOTS!" he muttered as he paced. Someone was here, probably followed the siren. Careless idiots, these monks. They never think far enough ahead.

Something needed to be done about this intruder. All of his carefully laid plans were at risk so long as this uncontrolled variable roamed free.

A plan began formulating in his brain as he left his small lab to search out Brother Marter. The monks and siren would be returning soon from their ridiculous parade, such a silly display for the citizens, and Dr. Maglia wanted to talk to the Brother before he got distracted with the "judgment ceremonies" the cult was so fond of.

* * *

Maya was brought through the village like a animal on display. When she first arrived back on her home planet, she'd tried everything she could think of to escape again. Being back here was like a personal hell, created just for her.

She'd fought physically and verbally, with as colorful profanity as she could, spitting her words like acid at the monks and pea-brained civilians around her. No one was phased. Her siren powers were useless, locked somewhere deep inside. She had no idea how the monks had gotten their hands on the same type of technology that had kept Angle and Lilith under Jack's control back on Pandora. It couldn't have been the same collar, she was certain the team had destroyed it after saving Lilith and killing Handsome Jack. Even if someone had tried to recover the pieces, the Vault of the Warrior was not someplace just anyone could travel to.

Had someone managed to copy the technology? She felt like that had to be it, but why they were working with the Cult of the Impending Storm, she didn't know.

The monks finished their parade and led their prisoner up to a wooden gallows type of deck, near the entrance to the largest temple, carved from the rock mountain tower itself. The wooden deck was used for "judgement ceremonies." Whenever the monks thought the civilians needed reminding of the type of power their cult wielded, they'd bring "criminals" to the deck and have them executed "for their sins." In the past, this only involved Maya once; that fateful day when she turned her growing powers on the monks who raised her and fled for Pandora. At the time, she was simply trying to find answers about her siren lineage, and the monks were trying to make her kill people without good reason. As she was brought up to the top of the platform now, her stomach sank at the thought that this might not go the same way it did over a year ago.

As she feared, the monks brought a man they claimed to be a criminal before her. They preached to the crowds about sin and how the goddess who would save them all from the impending storm of destruction. The man before her cowered and Maya knew there was no escape this time. Something in her broke and all of her anger and frustration was released. She began violently thrashing and yelling against the monks trying to control her. They were bigger than she was, and her chains made movements difficult. The looks from the crowd told her they saw her as a wild animal, nothing more. The Brother in charge of the ceremony didn't falter, despite Maya's shouting and cursing. He droned on about how their goddess was using her as a vessel, and the citizens had nothing to fear so long as they held no sin. The man in front of her started weeping.

The monk finished his sermon and turned to Maya and the criminal. Her eyes widened in disbelief when the collar suddenly became hot, and her siren powers rushed forth against her will. There was nothing she could do to stop herself from turning the man in front of her into a charred corpse. The crowd gasped as flaming wings appeared from her back briefly, and dissipated once the life had left the man's body. Nothing was left but ash and a small cloud of caustic air. The monks avoided the area of the dead man as they moved Maya back to the cart. She collapsed into the seat, her body drained from using energy against her will. Silently, she swore these people would not get away with using her like this. She would burn them all the first chance she got.


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: The last chapter was big on description and exposition, I felt like. It didn't flow as well as I had hoped. Maybe these chapters coming will be more entertaining for you all. There's more action in them.**

* * *

 **Chapter 9**

Night came swiftly on Athenas. Well, swiftly compared to Pandora's 90 hour days. This suited Zer0 just fine, waiting to act was the worst part of the job.

Thanks to inferior technology, the citizens' ability to light their village at night was limited. Zer0 took full advantage of the many deep shadows to travel swiftly to the entrance of the largest temple. He had confirmed earlier that this was where Maya was taken. Passing by the wooden platform at the base of the temple stairs, he noted the scorch marks; their presence bothered him.

There only appeared to be one entrance into, or out of, the temple. It was built right into the rock face, and where the tower didn't meet the wooden streets of the village, it plunged straight into the dark, foaming waters of the swamp below them. He wasn't equipped to scale the sheer rock face to look for other entrances, and that would have taken too much time anyhow. He'd go through the front and just be careful about it.

Thankfully, disappearing was Zer0's specialty.

Despite being literally invisible as he entered the temple, something stuck him as odd. Where were the guards? Why wasn't anyone watching the entrance? Did they really not have security, safe in the thought that the civilians were their only threat? No, whomever captured Maya had to be more clever than that. Something was amiss.

He scanned the dark corners of the stone hallways for cameras, microphones, anything that might indicate he wasn't alone in the temple. He found nothing. The lack of technology was a stark difference between this planet and any other. Even the most remote portions of Pandora utilized junk tech. This place was just barren.

Deeper into the temple he traveled. Occasionally glancing into rooms for any sign of life or technology. The further he went, the more his skin crawled. This was a trap. It had to be. His decades of experience assured that. Even knowing this, he couldn't turn back now. Maya was here somewhere and he didn't intend to let the monks keep her captive any longer.

A small voice in his head reminded him that Axton and Gaige were probably on their way to the planet now. He dismissed it. He couldn't assume when they would show up, and maybe a part of him didn't want them to be Maya's savior anyway. With a frustrated exhale, his dismissed that thought as well.

Finally, the sensors in his helmet picked up a sound. It was too low frequency to be a voice, was it from a machine? That was intriguing.

With the thought that this was probably a trap in mind, Zer0 silently made his way in the direction of the sound. As he got closer, he confirmed that it was not a voice, more like the low whirring sound of a running machine, maybe a generator of some sort. Soft light shown under the crack of a door at the end of a hallway, down a few steps. It was a dead end hallway, perfect for an ambush.

Zer0 stood in front of the door for a moment, weighing his options. If he couldn't find any other signs of life in this temple, then he could come back for the mysterious room. If he had the time. He didn't know how long night lasted on this planet, a silly detail he'd overlooked in his rush to secure travel. Usually he planned his trips a lot more carefully. If this was a trap then he'd be saving himself a lot of time by avoiding it. If it wasn't, and truly led to an important clue about Maya's location, then he'd still be wasting time by avoiding it.

He started to turn away until another sound was picked up by his sensors. It wasn't there before. This sound was unmistakable, it was a woman whimpering. Zer0 looked back at the door with eyes wide and calculating, and confirmed the sound was also coming from behind it. Going against his gut feeling, he opened the door and entered.

The room was dimly lit and a generator was whirring away in the corner. Zer0 noticed immediately the room was empty, and the woman's voice was coming from an ECHO recorder lying on a table. He cursed and spun around, pulling out his sword as he did so. In the cramped space guns wouldn't be of much help.

His feeling was correct. A second after he spun around three large men came from adjacent hallway doors, blocking his exit. He cut the first one down with ease and dodged back into the room after an electric charged bullet zapped his shield. He'd ponder why these monks had uncommon elemental weapons later. It would take 2.4 seconds for his shield to recharge, but he didn't have anywhere to hide. He'd have to be fast.

Zer0 activated his Decepti0n skill again, leaving an illusion of himself for the monks to shoot at as he tried to slip by him. No such luck, more men came to block the narrow hallway again. He cut down one more and stabbed another through the stomach, eviscerating him. The image of their comrade's innards on the floor made some of them hesitate, just long enough for Zer0 to slice the head off of another. Bullets started ringing all through the hallway, bouncing off the walls and ceilings as someone unloaded an automatic in the direction Zer0 was suspected of being last. He used one of the dead bodies for cover and waited for the gun's clip to empty. His shield was almost back up. Good.

Suddenly, his sensor picked up another sound from behind him, in the room with the generator. His head snapped up when he recognized the "beep, beep, beeeeeeep." It wasn't a generator, it was a bomb. Up the hallway the automatic's clip finally clicked empty. Zer0 bolted from behind his cover, trying to put as much distance between himself and the room as possible. More monks had joined the blockade while he'd been taking cover, and he stumbled to get through their large forms.

First came the initial shock wave, which knocked everyone down. Then the heat. It seared through the stone hallway like a funnel and broken rock flew through the air like shrapnel. Zer0's shield flashed brightly just in time to catch the brunt of the force, but it could only protect him so much from the fire. Something had chipped his visor in various places and the image wasn't displaying correctly. He desperately tried to keep moving away from the detonation but didn't make it far. A choice piece of stone caught his head from behind and his vision blurred, spun, then went black.


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: I feel like Zer0 has a really oddball sense of humor that I didn't capture as much as I would have liked in the story so far. Maybe at some point I'll go back and edit this properly.**

 **Anywho, here's chapter 10!**

* * *

 **Chapter 10**

The stone walls of the abbey were a cold reminder of Maya's life before Pandora. There were no windows because the temple was built right into the mountain. This made the interior always seem dark and damp. The place felt like a prison even before Maya knew she actually was a prisoner, during the brief time one might call a childhood. An involuntary shiver went through her as her keepers led her through the dimly lit halls. The sound of the chains around her ankles bounced off the walls as she shuffled along.

The scientist she met on the flight back to Athenas was the one behind her collar. She discovered this when the monks informed her that she needed "maintenance" on the collar. Hope welled up in her. This could be the opening she was looking for.

The monks led her to a room that was more brightly lit than any of the others. Extra lamps and candles were on nearly every surface here and small generators hummed in the corners, fueling the various machines. Maya noted the surveillance equipment and the Hyperion logos on everything.

"Ah, good, you brought the siren," the small man said. His nasally voice immediately put Maya on edge. "Bring her here and keep her head down, I need to access the back of the device for this."

Despite Maya not really resisting, the monks used more force than necessary to get her into position. If this maintenance work caused the collar to go offline, even for a moment, Maya wanted to be prepared to act. This might be the only chance she got.

"Don't try to struggle now, it'll only make the process painful for you. And don't think about escaping, nothing will be offline while I work on this. I've delt with your type before. I'd rather crush your hope now than have you disappoint yourself later," he said in a nonchalant way. Maya's stomach dropped when she heard this. She tried reaching for her power anyway, in case he was bluffing, but there wasn't anything there. It was still locked away. So much for her chance.

"Eat skag shit," she said.

"What a charming young woman, your goddess is," the scientist said. The monk holding Maya's head forward applied a little more pressure, making her neck hurt.

It didn't take the man long to do whatever he was doing. A minute or two later he was wiping greasing hands on a towel and dismissing the monks. They pulled Maya to her feet again and started leading her out of the room.

A muffled boom sounded and it felt like a tremor went through the whole abbey. The monk exchanged concerned glances.

"Doctor, was that..." one of the monks started. The scientist interrupted him.

"I'm sure it's nothing but some seismic activity," he said, hurriedly. Maya didn't buy it for a second.

One of the monks decided to go check, just to make sure. The others continued escorting their goddess back to her room. She tried to question them the whole way, but they resorted to speaking to her like a child, just like they had always done. The monks were fantastic at giving vague responses.

Maya tried to tell herself everything was going to be fine. She'd figure out what to do and she'd be fine. Yeah. Definitely.

Maybe.

* * *

The first thing Zer0 noticed when he came to was the rough feeling of straw and stone on his bare skin. Someone had stripped him of his armor while he was unconscious.

He didn't try to move or open his eyes at first. Instead, he focused on his hearing. As the fog that comes with a concussion began to clear from his head, voices in the room became more noticeable.

"You did NOT tell us there was a bomb! What am I supposed to tell the other Brothers now? Do you have any idea how many we lost because of your 'plan?'" this voice was deep and hushed.

"Worry not, Brother Marter, everything is still going smoothly. You would have lost far more men if I hadn't stepped in," said the second, nasally voice. The first voice huffed with disapproval.

"What is the point in us being supplied such firearms if you deem them useless against the threat of a single intruder. We've never had a problem dealing with such rogues before you and your plans."

"This is not a rogue lying before you, Brother, it is a monster, and of a caliber your men are no match for," the nasally voice assured the other man. As an aside, he said, "A shame Jack didn't end him on Pandora. Either way, Jack's mistake is my glory."

"We are not working with you for "your glory," Doctor. We don't want people like this searching us out. Kill him now before anything else goes amiss."

Zer0 decided to take this moment to find out more about his situation. With a little concentration, he once again molded molecules around his form and slipped into the skill he'd labeled Decepti0n. People tended to assume his armor was the trick to allowing him to move around invisibly, with an illusion of himself left behind as a decoy. This theory wasn't true in the slightest.

An illusion of Zer0's seemingly unconscious form was left behind as he got up unnoticed. To his disappointment, he was trapped in a cage made of hammered iron. Without any of his gear, he'd need to wait for his captors to let him out in order to escape. He began considering his options when the smaller, nasally sounding "Doctor" started speaking again.

"Absolutely not, Brother. I couldn't possibly pass up such a wonderfully delicious opportunity like this one. Make the siren kill him. Do whatever you want with ceremony, I don't care about any of that. But think about it, it's a win-win! The assassin is dealt with and the siren's will is broken. Even you could appreciate something that simple," the doctor said, a sickly smile spreading across his pale face. The larger cloaked man considered the idea briefly, then silently agreed. The matter settled, the monk left the room and the doctor was alone with Zer0.

Zer0's ability wore off and the appearance of him suddenly standing in the corner of his cell made the doctor jump and clutch his chest. His beady eyes roamed nervously around the cell and Zer0's form, checking to make sure he was safe from the assassin's reach.

"Hear all that, did you?" he asked, his voice shaking a little. "Well don't get any funny ideas. I know why you're here - you're trying to rescue your friend. If you try to escape I'll personally put a bullet through her brain. I can do that too. I have complete control over the witch," he said, putting courage behind his words. What did he have to fear? The monster was neutralized.

"You should now be scared. / I don't die so easily, / And now I am pissed," Zer0 calmly stated, his eyes locked on the man's beady ones. He was well aware of how unnerved humans got meeting his gaze, and he utilized this in full. He may be locked behind bars, with no weapons and no way of escaping, but his presence filled every inch of the room.

The man wiped sweat from his brow and tried to make it sound like Zer0 didn't scare him. "Brave words from someone about to die. I'll make sure to get a picture of your dead body. I'm sure an image of the infamous Zer0 dead and broken would sell for a high price. Or maybe I'll keep it as a trophy."

"This does not end here / I have much further to go / Before I fall dead." A smile graced Zer0's features as he said this, but it never reached his eyes. The small man grimaced at how creepy it looked in the dim light.

"Yes, well, we'll see about that," the doctor said with a sniff. He left the room and made sure to lock the door. Dr. Meglia had heard much about the assassin vault hunter, and there was no way to tell the difference between rumor and fact. Except for one. Now the doctor knew the monster assassin wasn't some robotic AI like some people had guessed. Zer0 was a living being, and that meant he could be killed.


End file.
